Now, I am opposed to the franchise in the District [of Columbia]; I am opposed, and not because I yield to any one in my support and belief in the principles of self-government; but principles are applicable generally, and then, unless you make exceptions to the application of these principles, you will find that they will carry you to very illogical and absurd results. This was taken out of the application of the principle of self-government in the very Constitution that was intended to put that in force in every other part of the country, and it was done because it was intended to have the representatives of all the people in the country control this one city, and to prevent its being controlled by the parochial spirit that would necessarily govern men who did not look beyond the city to the grandeur of the nation, and this as the representative of that nation.

ATTRIBUTION:

President WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT, address at a banquet given in his honor by the Board of Trade and Chamber of Commerce of Washington, D.C., May 8, 1909.Presidential Addresses and State Papers of William Howard Taft, vol. 1, chapter 7, p. 83 (1910).